For Immediate Release – January 20, 2008

Beavers Announce 2008 Award Recipients

The 2008 Golden Beavers Awards were presented at the 53rd Annual Beavers Awards Dinner held Friday, January 18th at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles, CA.  Former Congressman and HUD Secretary Jack Kemp was the guest speaker.

Beavers 2007 President Alan L. Landes of Herzog Contracting Corp. acted as master of ceremonies for the event.

The Management Award was presented to Thomas W. Traylor, CEO of Traylor Bros., Inc. of Evansville, IN.  A former president of the Beavers and current Trustee of the Beavers Charitable Trust, Traylor starting his career with the family business in 1962 designing and constructing early-mechanized shields and rotary excavators while completing his civil engineering degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).  Beginning as a project engineer for a 4-mile soft ground tunnel project in Seattle, Traylor held positions of increasing responsibility, culminating with his appointment as president and chief operating officer in 1979.  He added the posts of chairman and CEO in 1998.  Under his guidance Traylor Bros. has evolved from a regional contractor into a leading national heavy-civil organization.

Jay E. Carlson of Obayashi Corporation, South San Francisco, CA, received the Supervision Award.  During his forty-year career, Jay has managed a wide variety of major heavy civil projects.  Starting as a miner, he learned the trade from the bottom up, moving rapidly up the supervisory ladder.  He joined Morrison Knudsen in 1968 to handle estimating and engineering, but two years later returned to the field as a project manager for Harrison Western on several underground projects and eventually was named the company’s Tunnel Division Manager.  Over the next thirty years Jay has run primarily tunnel projects for Thyssen, S. J. Groves and Sons Co., Dillingham Construction, Impregilo (S.A. Healy), Aecon Constructors and most recently with Obayashi Corporation.

The Engineering Award was presented to Ronald E. Heuer of McHenry, IL.  Heuer is a civil engineering graduate from the University of Illinois – Urbana, where he not only earned a masters degree in Geology and PhD. in Civil Engineering – Geotechnical, but also served as an Associate Professor of Civil Engineering from 1975-78.  Since 1975 he has been a consultant on underground construction projects specializing in geotechnical engineering and engineering geology.  

Robert E. Pope Sr., president of Mining Equipment, Ltd. of Durango, CO, received the Service and Supply Award.  With twenty years of prior experience in the equipment business, including starting and later selling his own business, Pope formed Mining Equipment in 1980 to serve the tunnel and mining industries.  The company has become a valued supplier of rail-mounted equipment, ventilation systems and mine hoists on a global basis, providing numerous equipment innovations.

At the conclusion of the Award Dinner, James D. Waltze, Chairman and CEO of Griffith Company, Sante Fe Springs, California, was installed as the 2008 President of the Beavers.  Serving with Waltze as officers of the Beavers in 2008 will be Senior Vice President Tom Draeger of Bechtel Corporation; Vice President Mike Phelps of Kiewit Corporation; and  Secretary-Treasurer Ron Wells of Stacy and Witbeck, Inc.

2008 Beavers Officers:  Secretary-Treasurer Ron Wells, Stacy and Witbeck; Senior Vice President Tom Draeger, Bechtel Corporation; President Jim Waltze, Griffith Company; Vice President Mike Phelps, Kiewit Corporation